


Over the River

by TheSecondBatgirl



Category: Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 04:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/pseuds/TheSecondBatgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The nightmares came back every time that it rained.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over the River

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bigmamag](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigmamag/gifts).



The nightmares came back every time that it rained. He saw Leslie on the rope swing. She held out her hand to him, but he didn't take it. "Come back!" he yelled at her. "It's too dangerous!" Leslie just laughed, and started to swing across the river, which was rising fast. Then it happened, as he knew it would – the rope snapped. He saw Leslie as the river swept her away, and Jess could hear her calling for him. And as he had done so many times before, Jesse Aarons woke up, covered in sweat, with Leslie's name on his lips.

 

Glancing at the clock, he saw it was nearly four in the morning. There wasn't much point in him trying to get back to sleep then, he would only have to get up in an hour anyway. Jess walked over to the window and glanced out at the storm outside. He tried not to think of Leslie, and of the day she died. He'd been trying not to think of it for years now. True, it was hard to forget, but it was better for him to put her and their childhood behind him.

 

The phone near his bedside rang, and Jess reached for it.

 

"This had better be good," he said warningly.

 

"It's me," his sister May Belle said. "Storm woke me up, and I figured it had done the same to you. You all right?"

 

"I'm fine," Jess answered, lying through his teeth. "Just woke up to draw some, that's all."

 

"You're a lousy liar, Jess, and you always have been." May Belle sounded more amused than anything. "Lucky I still love you."

 

"Thanks, May Belle," Jess said, not sure how else to answer. "I'm fine."

  


"All right then," May Belle said. "Take care of yourself." Jess could hear crying in the background, and May Belle hung up the phone, probably to go calm down her baby.

 

He sat down, and pulled out his watercolors, and began to paint. He didn't need to be at work 'til six. The brush flew over the drawing pad, as Jess began to paint a familiar setting, but one that he hadn't drawn in a long time.

 

Terebinthia. The world that they had created in their imaginations, that he had put behind him when he'd left home so long ago. But maybe it was better for him to remember.

 

That night, Jess dreamed again. Leslie was again on the rope swing. This time when Leslie reached out her hand, he caught it, and together the two of them swung across the river, which stayed safely below them.

 

"Welcome back," Leslie told him, her eyes shining. "Terebinthia and I missed you."

 

When Jess woke up, his face was wet, but this time it was happy tears, and the sun was shining.


End file.
